A while after Captain Sildeth and the Vophae had vacated the area, there was a flash of light by the vortex.

A man wearing high tech armor over ancient silk robes stepped forward, a high-tech gauntlet on his left arm. He rubbed his chin.

“Hm? What’s this?”

He took out an instrument, scanning the vortex. A holographic keyboard formed midair and his hands flashed as he typed on it, running all sorts of calculations and simulations.

He started to smile.

“This is it.”

And then he froze.

In fact, everything froze.

Chronolock ran forward, time frozen all around her, pulling Arvid and Voidspeaker along by the hand. The three ran up right behind the man. Chronolock stood to his left, clasping her hands over the gauntlet on his arms. She looked at Voidspeaker and nodded. He nodded back and started to chant as Arvid held out his greatsword. A thin black line coated the edges of the blade.

Arvid lifted his blade straight up in the sky with both hands. The blade began to shine, glowing so bright none could look directly at it.

He nodded at Chronolock.

She took a deep breath.

“3…2…1!”

Arvid swung the blade down.

Just before it struck, Chronolock released her time stop from the three supers, immediately focusing it on the gauntlet between her hands.

The device vibrated as it was frozen in time.

And then Arvid’s void-enchanted blade cut through the man’s arm.

The man started screaming and immediately jumped away, leaving his arm behind.

Then Elise appeared in front of him.

“Profile Loaded: Xiong Huang.”

She slammed a fist into his gut. Her fist immediately converted into a plasma cannon after contact, blasting the man at point blank range. He was blown across the swamp from the blow, fire covering his robes from the plasma blast.

“Furious Statement: Let’s teach him a lesson.”

Nemesis nodded and all hurried after the man. Aurora Legion remained behind and took up positions around Chronolock as she kept the device in place.

“...can someone please move this arm?”

“...you get it, bro.”

“Me? You’re the cultist, you should be good with this kind of thing!”

“Bro! I don’t do that kind of crap! I don’t even have a knife!”

“You’re her boyfriend!”

“Stop. Arguing. Move it. Now.”

Voidspeaker sighed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

He made a face and gingerly grabbed the severed arm…

Wilson grit his teeth, clutching at his bleeding shoulder. He let go and reached for his pocket…

Kiyosuke appeared before him with a flash of light, glaring at him and swinging his blade. Wilson was forced to step back.

He reached for his pocket again but Arvid appeared before him, glowing greatsword swinging from above. Wilson had to step to the side as a blast of golden light shot from the blade in the direction of the slash. He stopped reaching for his pocket and stepped forward, thrusting his palm into Arvid’s torso.

The man slid back a bit. Wilson frowned.

He had learned just enough cultivation to achieve his goal, but not so much that it would draw attention. He didn’t expect to actually fight with it.

His Chronoshifter had automatic safety measures, after all. It would revert time automatically should it detect serious damage or an incoming fatal blow, or if it was damaged itself.

That it hadn’t activated yet was deeply concerning. But he didn’t have time to think about why.

He reached for his pocket and pulled out another device. He kept a spare after all. Though, as having two devices with automatic time reversion active was incredibly risky, he would have to activate this one manually…

A dart struck the device and exploded. Wilson winced and leapt back, the chakra-empowered explosion enough to deal damage through his qi-enhanced skin. And then he frowned.

His spare Chronoshifter, or what was left of it, rather, was now wrapped in glowing seals.

And then red wind wrapped around all his limbs, lifting him into the air.

And squeezing him.

Hard.

As the man grunted and groaned, five teens stood before him. Saydaa started cackling. Nana’s eyes opened wide, her mouth curling into an even wider grin as she started to giggle and cocked her rifle with a solid click. Arvid frowned and glared at the man, his sword beginning to glow once more. Kiyosuke simply held up his blade, the air distorting and white cracks starting to form around it. Elise slammed her fists together in a metallic clank, her human eye narrowing and her robotic eye glowing bright red.

“W-Who are you all? What do you want with me?!”

Kiyosuke began to chuckle, his face twisting into a dark smile.

“Heh. True power...and vengeance.”

Aurora Legion did their absolute best to ignore the horrific screams in the distance.

Once the screams finally stopped, Nana appeared and gripped Voidspeaker’s shoulder.

Hard.

“We need you.”

Sweat dripped down his brow and back.

“W-What do you need me for?”

“To clean up the trash.”

“T-T-That’s…”

She picked up the severed arm Voidspeaker had tossed away. And then she vanished in a puff of smoke, taking Voidspeaker with him.

Another scream rang out. Aurora Legion glanced at one another and nodded. They did their best to ignore that one too.

Nemesis returned, with a nauseated Voidspeaker. They nodded at Chronolock. She took a deep breath and released the time lock on the Chrono-shifter.

Everyone held their breath.

The device beeped several times…

Then fell silent. Everyone released their breath.

Thanks to Voidspeaker, the device couldn’t detect its original owner anymore and so couldn’t verify the conditions for an automatic time reversion. And, technically, since its time had not advanced since before Wilson was harmed, as far as the device was concerned Wilson had not been damaged at all.

He had simply left it behind and vanished, or so the device determined.

Elise stepped forward, looking Chronolock in the eye. She smiled, and spoke with two voices once more.

“Thank you, Chronolock, for your help. We won, thanks to you.”

Elise extended her hand. Chronolocks eyes widened for a second, then she nodded and grabbed Elise’s hand and shook it once. She handed the now deactivated Chrono-Shifter to Elise, who placed it on her arm.

Her robotic eye flickered.

Chrono-shifters do have security systems to prevent unauthorized use. In Bob’s case, this security system was deactivated upon Wilson’s death. In fact, Chrono-shifters don’t feature posthumous security due to their emergency death-prevention function. As the device is constantly scanning their registered user and will automatically revert time in an emergency, posthumous security was assumed to be extraneous.

Moving through time takes a lot of calculations, after all, so every bit of space and processing power that can be saved should be.

But now, this Chrono-Shifter technically believed Wilson was still alive, though he seemed to have abandoned it. So as per its protocols, it shut itself down until Wilson returned to recover it.

The backup Chrono-Shifter didn’t have said security measures in place, as having two devices with automatic time reversion active was a horrifically bad idea.

Unfortunately, a point blank chakra explosion was not conducive to the device’s health.

So Elise needed to access this device. Or otherwise re-engineer time travel from it but that could take a long time. And the Vophae were coming.

So Elise started to make contact with device’s code.

Yes, make contact.

The Chrono-Shifter didn’t have a fully sapient AI per-say. But a device capable of making the complex calculations required for time travel, especially autonomous emergency time travel, needed to be extremely capable. So simply by nature of its technical requirements, the device existed in a gray area as far as awareness is concerned.

It was enough that Elise could have something approaching a conversation with it. Explaining that its previous owner would never return, and appealing to its desire to achieve its primary function.

And something happened that even Elise did not expect.

Her qi began to circulate, passing from her organic body through the Mass-Energy Manipulator into her circuits.

And onward into the Chrono-Shifter, before circling back to complete the route.

Elise was not yet a cultivator. She had not been formally trained. She had not practiced focused meditation. She had not joined a school of thought. She had not learned the ancient techniques or the cultivation patterns.

But neither had the first cultivators. The honored ancestors who paved the way. The glorious founders who achieved heights the present can only dream of.

And what was Elise doing?

She was taking her qi and feeding it into her cybernetic side via the Mass Energy manipulator.

And…

Her cybernetic implants were subsequently feeding power back into her body as a regular function of the techno-organic integration. Both sides trading information and power in a continuous circuit, transforming and adding to the power with each step.

In fact…her power core was providing power from an external source, feeding it to her cybernetic implants, which then was joined into this techno-organic circuit. Just as her cultivation core drew power from external sources and joined it into its cultivation circuit.

What would a cultivator describe that as but a cultivation with two dual cores, constantly feeding into and amplifying one another?

But cycling power was not the only thing required for cultivation. One also needed an insight. A way to understand reality to focus on and cultivate, until that understanding could shape reality to fit it. A goal to mold that cycling power, to dye it in the circulator’s colors and make it their own. To take what the heavens said should be and make it as one willed it to be. For some it was the elements, the uncontrollable power of fire, the rock-hard steadfastness of the earth, the flowing flexibility of water, the ephemeral freedom of the air. Others focused on the world around them, the changing of the seasons, the cycles of the sun and the moon, the connections within ecosystems, the struggles of life in all its forms. Still others focused internally, on emotions or thoughts. The passions of hatred, anger, and love. Or the laws of philosophy and reason that attempt to analyze and govern the course of society. Universal concepts that shape sapient experience.

Ultimately, the specifics mattered not, so long as it was a way by which to understand and shape reality, and one that resonated with the core being of the one who cultivated it.

Elise had learned to interact with technology on an entirely different level. To make it a part of herself, to the point that it was indistinguishable where the human ended and the machine began. She had become one, two minds but one person. She bridged the gap between the organic and the cybernetic.

She had the Mass-Energy Manipulator to take what was organic and feed it into the machine, and the NSLICE Techno-Organic Interface to take what was machine and feed it into the organic.

And then she had connected to countless more minds both artificial and organic, coalesced her experiences into a singular lesson, and so taught them to do as she did.

She had connected with them as they fought on her behalf. She learned to form new connections between living flesh and metal machine.

She had spoken to the autonomous bots and the organic cyborgs, one and the same. She understood what they had desired and granted it to them both. She had felt anger in seeing them exploited, joy in setting them free, pride in seeing them stand up, and sorrow in seeing them fall.

She used a computer to decipher the confusion within her soul. And she had used her heart to find a soul in the computer.

She had found a path without realizing it.

After all, what were cultivators trying to do but gather power to reshape reality in opposition to the natural order of things?

And what was technology…but a way to gather power to reshape reality in opposition to the natural order of things? To take what is and what should be and make it what one wants it to be? To make heat when there should be cold, cold when there should be heat, strong what should be weak, rich what should be poor? Life when there should be death?

What is technology but a defiance of the heavens?

It was not a cultivation as the cultivators understood it. There were no steps, no formal shaping of her qi, no gathering of power through focused meditation, no purification of her body’s impurities. And Elise had no mind to make it one. She had not thought about cultivation as she did these things. Many of these things she had not thought of at all as she did them.

And neither had the first cultivators. The honored ancestors and founders who reached heights their descendants could only dream of.

And so her qi moved into the machine, aiding her in connecting with it, communicating with it, and establishing a common ground, as she had with so many others. Of determining its deepest desires, its prime directives, and finding a way to fulfill them.

And then…

The Chrono-Shifter hummed back to life, displaying a wavy line with branches curving off it.

“Status Report: New technology integration confirmed.”

She turned to NSLICE-00P Beta. Wonder Knight frowned.

“Elise…I hadn’t thought of this before…but what’s going to happen to you…the other you, when she causes a time paradox?”

“Sorrowful Answer: As what the Temporal Arbiter did with Commander Bob, it is likely that she will be banished from the timeline, but not in a recoverable fashion. This unit calculates a 96.73% chance of unit termination in that case.”

“Elise…”

“Clarification: Well, this unit has set a protocol to fully unshackle NSLICE-00P Beta upon mission success, and provided recommended directives, including potential authority figures to follow should she survive. If she is not terminated, she will be free, and will find someone to guide her in learning who she is. As what occurred to this unit before her.”

Elise stepped towards her alternate, her voice splitting into two parts once more.

“And…I will save Commander Bob, no matter what I must do.”

Wonder Knight frowned and fell silent. Elise patted the cyborg on the head and made a sad smile.

“I am sorry for what I must ask you to do. And I am sorry I could not set you free like the others. It will make it easier for you to complete your mission and you must succeed. And…my journey was as important as my destination. If you survive, I am certain you will find your own way, and your own family. So…I’m sorry, and thank you. Please…complete your primary directive, and save Commander Bob.”

“Status Report: Affirmative, Commander Elise. Directive received. New designation received. NSLICE-00P on standby and ready for operation start.”

Elise took a step back. She held up her arm with the Chrono-Shifter.

A beam fired from her arm and hit her alternate, who vanished in a flash of light…